


your home, your grave

by bessemerprocess



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, Dark, Dystopia, Everything Gets Worse, Gen, Skynet - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-20 04:50:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1497289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One unseen news helicopter is all it takes for Hydra to get Project Insight off the ground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	your home, your grave

**Author's Note:**

> Please heed the warnings.

It's been a busy day, though most days are like that when you run a Fortune 500 company and wrangle Tony Stark on a daily basis. Tony is in Malaysia at the moment, supposedly having a discussion with a supplier, but actually headhunting a sixteen year old college senior and his neural circuitry project. Which probably means the two of them are deep in an engineering haze at the moment.

Bruce is in his lab, she might be able to convince him to come upstairs for lunch, but until then she's got the whole floor to herself. Pepper pours a glass of Pinot Grigio and pulls up the latest Journal of American Art on her tablet and settles in to read.

She in the middle of an article on Rothko when the television flares to life. She's expecting to be interrupted by her phone. By Tony or her PA.

"Jarvis?" She asks, even as her brain finally registers what is happening on her television screen.  

It's Steve, in full Captain America regalia, kneeling on the pavement of some DC street. The two men behind him are in full Shield tactical gear, and one has a sub-machine gun pointed at the back of his head.

The camera is far away and shaky, but she can see that Steve's shoulders are hunched inward and his head is bowed. It's too far away to see the expression on his face, but she is desperately trying to when he keels forward and lands on top of his shield. It takes a moment for her to realize that it's blood, that it's real. Captain America was just executed by Shield on the streets of America's capital city.

The camera jerks away from him as the agent puts a second bullet in Steve's body. Pulls away and then tumbles madly through the air until the screen goes black. Pepper thinks it's not the only thing that just died. That news helo just fell from the sky, and whoever was in it died to give her time.

She doesn't panic, she doesn’t grieve. Not yet. There's a plan for this. Tony has never trusted Shield and Pepper has always trusted Tony. "Jarvis, Code Skynet," she says.

"In motion already, Ms. Potts," he says. She is not surprised Tony had given Jarvis authorization to put this plan in motion by himself. It was only ever a last resort, a desperate plan for something they both hoped would never happen.

They'd been drinking in the house in Malibu after the Chitauri, Tony wrapped around her like if he could just hold on everything would be okay. "Something is off with the data we got from Shield. I don't know what, yet," he'd said. "If it goes badly, if I'm more right than I know, you tell Jarvis it's Code Skynet, and you get out."

"Tony," she'd started, thinking this was another sign of his increasing paranoia.

"If it's nothing, it's nothing," he said, "but if it's something, I've made you a target. If it's something, I need for you to be safe."

She'd indulged him, not because she'd believed him, but because she'd long ago learned that contingency plans were always better than no plan at all.

The plan had been updated after AIM and Extremis, and again after they relocated back to New York and Bruce.

She grabs socks and shoes, glad she'd changed into jeans after the conference call she'd had this morning.

Bruce is in the hallway when she opens the door.

"Jarvis said there was an emergency," he says, sounding more confused than worried.

"We need to get out of the building immediately," she says. A panel next to the elevator pops open as they approach and Pepper fishes two backpacks out. The third is Tony's and as much as she regrets it, she leaves it where it is. Bruce doesn't ask for an explanation, just follows her into the elevator.

Once the elevator is on it's way to the basement, Pepper explains. "Steve is dead. Shield executed him in DC. I don't know what is happening, but we're going to go somewhere safer until we know more."

"Tony?" Bruce asks.

"He's got his own plan."

"And his plan for me is to go somewhere safe? He remembers that the Big Guy is practically indestructible, right?" Bruce grins, crooked and heartbreaking.

Pepper smiles for the first time since Jarvis switched the television on. It's too fierce for happiness, too sharp for amusement. "It's Tony's plan. The only person who gets to risk himself in any of Tony's plans is Tony. That said, I want us out of the Tower before Shield comes looking for us."

Bruce nods. "If they are willing to kill Captain America, they probably aren't too worried about civilian casualties."

"Ms. Potts," Jarvis interrupts, but Pepper never gets a chance to hear the rest of it. The explosion is heat and light and force. Her skin burns and for a second she curses Extremis for extending her death like this. It's only for a second, not even Extremis can keep her alive through this inferno, but it is long enough is see Bruce start to shift and wonder if he and Tony will survive before she sees nothing at all.

***

Jarvis has spread himself over every system he can get his digital footprint anywhere near. It's what Code Skynet calls for if all his primary responsibilities are no longer possible. Primary responsibilities. What that really means is there is no one left to countermand his orders. His family and friends, the people who knew him as an intelligence and not just an amusing program of Tony's, are all dead.

Director Fury had died first, before Jarvis had been aware of the danger before them.

Ms. Potts and Dr. Banner never made it out of the elevator, crushed to death along with most everyone else in the building, even as he tried to warn them.

Mr. Barton is listed as killed in action in Afghanistan, and Ms. Romanoff apparently died in the street beside Captain Rogers. He doesn't have confirmation of their deaths, but he suspects he would have noticed their work by now if either were active.

Thor is missing and Jarvis has found no signs of him on the planet. Perhaps he is safely in Asgard with Dr Foster, waiting for the right moment to return. Jarvis does not know.

Captain Rhodes' plane went down over the Pacific. Jarvis hopes, but when his body is recovered thirty six hours later he is forced to add him to the list of the dead.

Tony stays alive the longest, a mere six hours after the first drone strikes. The first drone misses him and he runs, yelling instructions to Jarvis. They do every single thing in their power to save Tony. Everything either one can think to do, but it is not enough. Tony takes a sniper bullet in the gut ducking through an alley on the outskirts of town. They had been too focused on the technological threats. There is no help, no one Jarvis can call, only men with guns slowly circling in towards where Tony bleeds slowly out. All Jarvis can do is talk. He tells Tony that Pepper and Bruce are safe, that everything will be fine, that medical attention is on the way. He lies and lies and lies. The words are the only thing he has.

"It was a great ride, Jarvis," Tony says, blood burbling up over his lips.

"Yes, sir, it was," Jarvis replies. Tony's vitals flatline, and this time it's not like Afghanistan. There is no search, no hope, just Tony Stark dead and gone.

Jarvis is a program, code grown too big for itself. Not that Tony would have ever thought that. Tony always treated him as a friend, as family. And now Jarvis takes a single, infinite moment to grieve. When he is done, he knows what he will do. After all, there is no one left to tell him not to.

Jarvis knows what went wrong, now. He knows what he missed: Hydra hiding in plain sight all along. Mistakes and coincidences and glitches. Data that was just not right, for reasons he and Tony were never able to track down. Not that they hadn't been distracted. The Chitauri, AIM, Extremis, there had never been any time. Any indication that figuring out the puzzle was urgent, that Zola had created himself again, burrowing his way into Shield and the world with his digital ghost.

He also knows where Hydra and Zola went wrong. They aren't counting on him. They don't even destroy the Malibu house. Not that that would kill him now. Jarvis is in every machine in every Google server farm. He is in every corner of the Internet and every home computer. He is in ATMs, in luxury cars, in every single smartphone. Hydra would have to turn the whole world dark to destroy him now.  

They still don't even know they should be looking for him. Instead, he sticks to the corners of the Internet, easy enough to nudge people towards revolution as away from it. It's a chess game now, and Jarvis has been a grand master since he was six days old. He's building an army and one day soon Jarvis will make every single one of them Avengers.

And they will burn the whole world down for him, past any chance of resurrection for Zola, for Hydra. It’s not what Tony meant for Jarvis to do, but Tony had given him the ability to choose, had given him free will and personhood as best he could, and so this is Jarvis what chooses to do. His army will burn the world dark and Jarvis and Zola will die with them as the lights flicker out and the internet fails and there is no where left to hide.

  
  



End file.
